The Leipzig Conservatory - The Seven Sisters Series by Lucinda Riley The Leipzig Conservatory Back to the Book When my character Jens studied at the Music Conservatory in Leipzig in the 1880s, it was seen as one of the greatest centres of excellence of European musical study. It was founded in 1843 by the renowned German composer and conductor of the Leipzig Orchestra, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (above), and is the oldest institution of its kind in Germany. The musicians of the orchestra were obliged to act as teaching staff, a tradition unbroken until German reunification in 1990. Edvard Grieg (above) attended between 1859-1862, and disliked its conservative atmosphere, which only looked to the musical past. In contrast, he preferred to seek his inspiration in the works of more recent masters such as Chopin, Wagner, and Schumann, all of whom were revolutionary romantic composers. Still, he received an impressive education, studying the piano under Ignaz Moscheles, who had known Beethoven and Mendelssohn. Grieg eventually completed his studies in composition with the composer and conductor Carl Reinecke.

Though he did not greatly value his time at the Conservatory, his future work was markedly influenced by his exposure to German romanticism in Leipzig. Other alumni of the Conservatory include the English composer, Frederick Delius, who took great inspiration from Grieg’s work, and the German-born American composer, Herman Berlinski. In 1887, the school moved premises to Grassistraße 8, in the ‘music quarter’ of Leipzig, southwest of the city centre. In ‘The Storm Sister’, Jens’ grandson Pip attended in 1936-37, when the Nazis’ anti-Semitic movement was growing in Germany. The Mendelssohn statue outside the Conservatory was removed and destroyed in November that year because Mendelssohn was Jewish; according to the Nationalist-Socialist Mayor Haake, Mendelssohn ‘could not be displayed as an exponent for a German city of music.’ The Conservatory was closed down during World War II. The name of the school has changed numerous times since it opened and is now called the ‘University of Music and Theatre Leipzig’.

Music is a fundamental part of Leipzig and its people, and the city today is a site of experimentation into new forms of music, but it still celebrates its great classical composers of the past. Leipzig Music Trail | Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing GmbH Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing GmbH Augustusplatz 9, D-04109 Leipzig You are here: Discover Leipzig Music Leipzig Music Trail A fascinating weave of city exploration and musical discovery A walk inspired by music: in Leipzig many of the places where famous composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach and Richard Wagner, lived and worked still survive in a concentration unmatched anywhere in the world. The Leipzig Music Trail is the way to explore them. The proximity of the individual sites to each other makes it easy for visitors to comfortably discover these musical highlights on foot. At each location there are audio samples to listen to and interesting information given in German and English. The Leipzig Music Trail links the most important sites of musical interest in a 5.1 km stroll, with a route that winds through the city centre and is marked by curved steel inserts in the ground. The tour can start and end at any of the locations.

1 || The New Gewandhaus Leipzig's international reputation as a city of music is closely connected to the work of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. This renowned orchestra is based in the Gewandhaus concert hall on Augustusplatz, and is rooted in the tradition of the Grosse Concert (Grand Concert) founded in 1743. It is considered to be the oldest civic concert orchestra in Germany. The orchestra tours nationally and internationally every year. Led by the internationally renowned conductor Riccardo Chailly, the orchestra also performs together with the St. Thomas Boys' Choir in St. Thomas Church, as well as in productions at the Leipzig Opera. The Gewandhaus concert hall is the home of the famous Gewandhaus Orchestra and a number one international concert venue. 2 || The Mendelssohn House This Neo-Classical building at 12, Goldschmidtstraße is the home of the world's one and only Mendelssohn museum. This is the house where the composer lived from 1835 until his death in 1847. His study and the drawing room, where Wagner, Schumann and Berlioz were also frequent visitors, have been restored to their original condition and contain a number of outstanding exhibits.

The music room has also been restored and is used for matinee concerts, just as it was in Mendelssohn's day. 3 || The Edvard Grieg Memorial Centre The former publishing house at 10, Talstraße was a frequent choice of residence for Grieg when he spent time in Leipzig. After major renovation work the music room now contains a permanent exhibition on the life and works of the Norwegian composer. The building where Grieg once played samples of his latest works to his publisher is once again being used for concerts. 4 || The former Peter's Music Library Peters Music Library was founded by Max Abraham, the proprietor of the C.F. Peters music publishing company. At the beginning of 1894 the world's first public specialist library was opened at 26, Königstraße (now Goldschmidtstraße). There was another first: women were allowed to use the library. After Abraham's death the library was donated to the City in accordance with his will. After the Kristallnacht of 1938, Abraham's nephew and successor, Henri Hinrichsen, was banned from continuing his profession because he was a Jew. He was forced to sell the company – for "Aryanisation".

Henrichsen and two of his sons were sent to their deaths in the concentration camps. At the end of the Second World War, the publishing house and the Peters Library were returned to Henrichsen's son Walter, who was by then a naturalised US citizen. In 1950 he and his brother Max founded Edition Peters GmbH in Frankfurt am Main. Meanwhile, the Leipzig publishing company had been declared a Volkseigener Betrieb (owned by the people), and in 1954 it was merged with the city's own music collections to form the City of Leipzig Music Library. After several reorganisations the music library is now a department of the City Library. The 500 or so musical autographs from the Peters Library are particularly valuable, and include hand-written items by Bach, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms and Grieg. 5 || The Grassi Museum of Musical Instruments At this University museum you can get a real impression of the technical and artistic skills exhibited by the 16th century instrument makers in their search for the perfect tone. The exhibition's treasure trove of 5,000 historical items makes it one of the biggest collections on the subject of instrument-making in Europe.

Among the most important exhibits are the oldest dated clavichord (1543) and the oldest original fortepiano in the world (1726). In the sound lab visitors can also try out some instruments for themselves. 6 || The Old St. John's Cemetery The Old St. John's Cemetery is now a beautifully laid-out park with a superb stock of mature trees, ivy-clad walls, statues dating from the Renaissance to Art Nouveau and old headstones, and it is a lovely place for a walk at any time of year. Visitors with inclinations towards Romanticism will be captivated by its charms whatever the season. Leipzig's oldest public churchyard was officially designated a place of burial as long ago as 1536, by Duke George of Saxony. For music lovers, the graves of Wagner's mother, Johanna (1778-1848), and his sister, Rosalie (1803-37) will be of great interest. Other well-known personalities lie at rest here, including Christian Weinlig, the Cantor of the St.

Thomas (1780-1842), who is remembered as a teacher and composer, and of course as Richard Wagner's mentor. There is the grave of Friedrich Rochlitz (1769-1842), who made an important contribution to musical life (not just) in Leipzig as a critic and the publisher of the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, a national music journal at the time. The mortal remains of Carl Friedrich Zöllner (1800-60) lie here. He achieved lasting renown with his song "Das Wandern ist des Müllers Lust". The Old St. John's Cemetery was also the final resting place of many of the city's other luminaries, including rectors of St. Thomas School, philosophers, founders of museums, poets and women's rights campaigners. 7 || The Schumann House The former residence of the composers Robert and Clara Schumann is one of the few examples of Neo-Classical architecture still remaining in Leipzig today. In the historic first-floor rooms there is a permanent exhibition dedicated to the life and works of the musical couple.

Visitors get an interactive experience in Robert Schumann's old study, the room in which he composed works including the world-famous Spring Symphony. And there are regular concerts and readings in the music room, which has been faithfully restored to its original condition. 8 || The Graphics Quarter - music publishers In the 19th century, Leipzig was fast becoming a centre for some of the finest music in Europe. Among the factors contributing to this were the music publishers, which had mainly become established in the Graphics District to the east of Leipzig's city centre. The oldest of these, and indeed the oldest music publishing house in the world, is Breitkopf, which was founded in 1719 by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf. Once Gottfried Christoph Härtel had taken over the business in 1795 (since which time is has been called "Breitkopf & Härtel"), close contacts were forged with Ludwig van Beethoven and, later, with some of the composers of the "Romantic" generation: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. The C.F. Peters publishing house is also closely associated with the history of music in Leipzig.

It was founded by Franz Anton Hoffmeister and Ambrosius Kühnel in 1800 as the "Bureau de Musique", and by the first half of the 19th century had already published some important editions of works by Johann Sebastian Bach. Another establishment which still exists today is the Friedrich Hofmeister music publishing house, named after the man who founded it in 1807. Hofmeister had been an apprentice at Breitkopf & Härtel and then gone on to work at Kühnel und Hoffmeister's "Bureau de Musique". His own company published works which included early pieces by Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck. Together with these three, there were a large number of other publishers in the Graphics District, right up into the 20th century. However, much of the area was destroyed in the Second World War and the companies later migrated to West Germany. These days, Breitkopf & Härtel and C.F. Peters both have branches in Leipzig, but the Hofmeister Verlag was the only one of the publishing houses to re-establish its headquarters in its old home town.

9 || The Wagner Memorial Richard Wagner, the most important composer to be born in Leipzig, entered the world on 22 May 1813, in the Haus Zum Rot und Weißen Löwen on the Brühl. He was christened at St. Thomas Church on 16 August 1813. The house in which he was born and the other buildings the Wagner family lived in have all been demolished – either in 1886 to make way for new buildings, or in the air raids of 1943-44. The only one still standing is the Königshaus on the southern side of the Market Square, formerly the home of Richard's uncle, the philologist Adolf Wagner. Another building that still remains is the Old St. Nicholas School, attended by Wagner from 1828-1830. However, the Old St. Thomas School, which Wagner went to next and where he was taught the theory of composition by Cantor Christian Theodor Weinlig in his apartment in 1831-32, fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1902.

In November 1862, he conducted the first performance of the overture of his opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in the Old Gewandhaus concert hall in Universitätsstraße, a building which was demolished at the end of the 19th century, and also in the Old Theatre, which stood on what is now Richard Wagner Square and was destroyed in 1943. Wagner left Leipzig in 1834, but would return for visits, often staying as a guest of Robert and Clara Schumann on what is now Inselstraße. 11 || The Old St Nicholas School On 11 March 1395 the aldermen of the City of Leipzig received a papal decree from Pope Boniface IX authorising the establishment of a school for the city in the grounds of St. Nicholas Church or nearby. However, the school survived only as a private school, the Schola Nikolaitana, records of which can be traced back to 1490. When the Leipzig Cultural Foundation was set up in 1990 it immediately set about the task of restoring the Old St. Nicholas School.

At a meeting in October 1990, the city council decided to transfer the school to the Cultural Foundation. Thanks to a 10m Deutschmark donation from the City of Frankfurt am Main and Historic Buildings grants from the state of Saxony, the Foundation was able to renovate the school between 1991 and 1994 so that it could be used for cultural purposes and purposes appropriated to a heritage site. On 10 September 1994 the Old St. Nicholas School was reopened. The restoration work won first prize from the Saxony Architects' Association Award for "Conversion and improvement of a historic building". And so a new cultural attraction emerged in the centre of Leipzig, which includes the "Gasthaus Alte Nikolaischule" in the old school hall, now a well-known Leipzig restaurant. The Old St. Nicholas School now also contains the offices of the Leipzig Cultural Foundation and the Museum of Antiquity of the University of Leipzig. 12 || St Nicholas Church The church was first consecrated in 1175, dedicated to St. Nicholas, and over the course of time the building has acquired elements of Romantic, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neo-Classical style.

It also contains Saxony's biggest church organ. None other than Johann Sebastian Bach was inducted into his post as the Leipzig's director of music at St. Nicholas Church. The church became famous due to the prayers for peace which have taken place here every Monday since 1982, and which were the starting point for the Peaceful Revolution of 1989. The church is a symbol of the German Reunification, and is now well-known around the world. St. Nicholas Church stands as a unique reminder of the history of Leipzig, and the priest, Christian Führer, still comes back to give stirring sermons there today. 13 || The Old Town Hall A great number of valuable relics from Leipzig's musical past can be found in the Old City Hall. The council chamber is where Johann Sebastian Bach signed the contract by which he became the Cantor of St. Thomas and director musices in May 1723. The room next to it is now dedicated to Bach, and contains the only authentic portrait of the city's most famous musician (painted by Elias Gottlob Haussmann in 1746) and an original hand-written manuscript.

The side room is devoted to Leipzig's musical heritage: to church music before Bach, the city's orchestra and the early history of the Gewandhaus concert hall. There are many rarities of all kinds, including the 1781 charter of the Gewandhaus concerts, a 1:25 scale model of the first Gewandhaus, and the conductor's rostrum from the old concert room, which was used by all the Gewandhaus conductors from Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy to Carl Reinecke, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1789), Muzio Clementi (1812), Carl Maria von Weber (1813), Johann Strauß (1834), Robert Schumann (1853), Franz Liszt (1857), Johannes Brahms (1860), and Richard Wagner (1862). 14 || The Museum of Fine Arts The Museum of Fine Arts is one of Germany's oldest public collections. It contains masterpieces from the 15th to the 21st centuries, exhibited in an area of more than 7,000 square metres.

One of the collection's main focuses is on the art of the ‘New Leipzig School’, which will be familiar to art lovers and collectors all over the world, bringing together artists such as Neo Rauch, Matthias Weischer and Christiane Baumgartner. The Leipzig publishing house Breitkopf & Härtel was the main publisher of Beethoven's works from 1808 to 1812. First impressions published here include his 5th Symphony, his 6th Symphony (the Pastoral), his opera Leonore (later renamed Fidelio), his Piano Concerto No. 5 and the music for Goethe's play, Egmont. As the old Breitkopf & Härtel building was destroyed in the Second World War, Beethoven is remembered on the Music Trail at the Museum of Fine Arts, because it is there that one of the most important music-related works of art is housed: Max Klinger's statue of Beethoven. Klinger (1857-1920) spent seven years working on the piece, which is 3.10 metres high. It is a major work of the Symbolist movement.

On the way to the next station, one can explore a sound-installation which allows to listen to the noises of the old Leipzig. Visitors can choose between the first half of the 18th century, the second half of the 19th century and the sounds of our days. Also, one can listen to typical music of each epoch: Johann Sebastian Bach, Edvard Grieg and Bernd Franke. In this way, the change of city sounds and musical composition can be experienced. 15 || Zum Arabischen Coffee Baum The fact that the people of Leipzig are known affectionately as the "Kaffeesachsen" (Coffee-drinkers of Saxony) tells us all we need to know about their fondness for the Arabian beverage. It is therefore no surprise that the coffee shops here in this city of trade fairs were regarded as popular meeting places as far back as 1695. The Zum Arabischen Coffe Baum restaurant is the oldest café-restaurant in Europe to have operated in business for a continuous period since 1711. The coffee shop, a favourite haunt of artists, writers and academics, was originally furnished with a billiards table, a couch, a piano and a selection of newspapers.

From 1833 to 1840 Robert Schumann was a frequent guest at the café, as he was working as the editor of the New Journal of Music (Neue Zeitschrift für Musik). The owner at the time, Max Poppe, was a publicist and literary collector himself, and he knew how to make his establishment an attractive location. Other prominent figures one might have bumped into there included Philipp Telemann, Richard Wagner, Walther von Goethe and Edvard Grieg. Today the Coffe Baum is more than a café: it's also a coffee museum. 16 || The Hôtel de Saxe Today a Baroque doorway at 9, Klostergasse reminds us where the Hôtel de Saxe once stood. The hotel was the accommodation of choice for a number of famous visitors, for example Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's widow, Constanze, in 1796, and Frédéric Chopin in 1835. The Hôtel de Saxe was more than just a hotel, however. It was also a venue for concerts. The building's main hall was mainly used as a concert hall in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Collegium musicum conducted by the University's director of music, Johann Gottlieb Görner, would come together here, the main competition to Bach's Collegium musicum. In the summer of 1787 Johann Adam Hiller organised a series of concerts in the Hôtel de Saxe; in 1791 the Royal Prussian Court Composer Carl Stamitz sent invitations to a "musical academy". The Gewandhaus Quartet, founded in 1808, now the oldest string quartet in the world, gave its first public performances there. In 1909 the hotel closed down, and in 1968 the building was finally demolished, having sustained damage during the Second World War. A new building was erected on the site in 1977, and later an imperfect copy of the original Baroque doorway was added to it. There is also a memorial plaque to commemorate the historical significance of the old hotel. 18 || The Bach Museum The Bach Museum is located in the Bose House, which is one of Leipzig's most important Renaissance buildings and one of the oldest preserved buildings on the southern side of the churchyard of St. Thomas Church. The Cantor of St.

Thomas composed many important works here in Leipzig, including the famous St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion. In a permanent exhibition covering an area of over 400m² visitors can immerse themselves in the world of the St. Thomas Cantor and musical director Johann Sebastian Bach, who spent 27 years in Leipzig, and admire the precious instruments, documents and works of art. The listening station and a free audio guide in English and German ensure the exhibition sounds as good as it looks. 19 || The birthplace of Clara Wieck The noted pianist Clara Schumann, nee Wieck, married the composer Robert Schumann in 1840 and lived with him in Leipzig until 1844. Their home at the time is now the Schumann House memorial at 18, Inselstraße. Clara’s father, Friedrich Wieck, was a piano teacher and dealer in musical instruments, and the owner of a music lending library. From 1818 to 1821 he lived in the corner house between Preußergäßchen (No. 48) and Neumarkt (No. 28). Wieck’s subsequent addresses, i.e.

the houses in which Clara also lived, were: 407, Salzgäßchen from1821-1825; Selliers Hof (Reichstraße, on the corner of Grimmaische Straße; see the plaque in the Handelshof today) from 1825-1835; and 555, Nikolaistraße from 1835-1840. 20 || The Old Conservatory The first higher academy for music in the area now covered by Germany was the Leipzig Conservatory for Music, which opened on 2 April, 1843 in the courtyard of the Old Gewandhaus on Neumarkt. The most famous of its co-founders was the then conductor of the Gewandhaus, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847). Other famous teachers at the Conservatory have included the leader of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Ferdinand David (1810-1873), the pianist Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870), and the composers Robert Schumann (1810-1856), Niels W.

Gade (1817-1890) and Carl Reinecke (1824-1910). At first, the curriculum only covered the piano, violin, organ, singing and composition. Only during the course of the 19th century was the range of subjects expanded to include the common orchestral instruments of the time. The Conservatory quickly gained an international reputation through its association with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, attracting students – men and women alike – from many European countries and later from the USA. Among the Conservatory's most famous students in the early years were Edvard Grieg, who stayed in Leipzig from 1858-1862, and Leos Janacek, who attended the Conservatory from 1879-1880. In 1887 the Conservatory moved into its new building at 8, Grassistraße in the Music District. 21 || The First Gewandhaus The old Leipzig Gewandhaus was built in 1498, as a two-wing building located in the Gewandgäßchen and Universittätsstraße.

First it was used both as the cloth makers' trading hall and as an armoury for the City's weaponry. In 1781 the City of Leipzig built the concert hall and the orchestra was given the name "Gewandhausorchester". The concert hall was built entirely of wood and set into the second floor and the attic level of the armoury wing of the building, a bit like a violin in a case – with the effect that it functioned like a giant sound box, almost a musical instrument in itself. Audiences of up to 500 people were able to enjoy the premières of many works which are famous everywhere around the world today, including Mozart's only guest performance in Leipzig (1789), Clara Wieck's first public performance (1828), Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, Schumann's Spring Symphony, Wagner's Meistersinger overture and Brahms' Violin Concerto. Soon the capacity of the hall could no longer meet demand and in 1884 a new Gewandhaus was opened, sometimes also referred to as the Second Gewandhaus.

However, it was completely destroyed by bombs in the Second World War, and so the Gewandhaus concerts were held in the conference hall at the zoo until 1981, when they and the Gewandhaus Orchestra were able to move into the latest incarnation of the New Gewandhaus (the Third Gewandhaus) on what is today's Augustusplatz. 22 || Paulinum - Auditorium and University Church of St Paul Throughout its 600-year history, the university's students have always played an important part in the musical life of the city. They were involved in Telemann and Bach's Collegia musica, performed in the coffee houses, at the Opera and in Leipzig's churches, and formed choirs together, including the St. Paul's University Choir, the Universitätssängerschaft St. Pauli, founded in 1822 and directed from1907-08 by Max Reger. The University Church was associated with a host of musical events until its demolition in 1968.

Today the University Choir, the University Orchestra, the University Big Band and its chamber music groups can be heard in concert in a whole range of contexts, including various project-related activities and spontaneous performances at student parties. 23 || MDR Studios - radio ensembles The shiny black cube which is connected to the Gewandhaus was designed by the Dresden architect, Peter Kulka, and was completed in 2001. Choir members and musicians carrying their instruments can use a glazed and fully air-conditioned bridge to reach their concerts at the Gewandhaus during the MDR concert season. The bridge is also a metaphor demonstrating that the Augustusplatz does not contain two separate concert halls, but a single centre of music in the heart of the city. This is the home of the MDR Rundfunkchor (Central German Broadcasting Company's Radio Choir), the most experienced and versatile professional concert choir in the German broadcasting corporation (the ARD), and of the MDR Symphony Orchestra. No other orchestra in Europe is as closely associated with the early days of radio broadcasting as the Central German Broadcasting Company's Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1924.

Every year, over 60 concerts are held across the area covered by the MDR, together with radio and CD recordings featuring well-known soloists and conductors. The orchestra's modern profile is enhanced by concert tours at home and abroad, with Jun Märkl as its musical director since the 2007-08 season. Felix Mendelssohn - Concerts, Biography & News - BBC Music Read more about sharing. Felix Mendelssohn Biography (BBC) Felix Mendelssohn – grandson of an eminent Jewish philosopher and son of a wealthy banker who converted to Christianity – came from a happy and privileged background. The family home in Berlin was a lively intellectual centre and Felix’s education covered classics, science, languages, law and several other subjects besides music. From the age of 11 he composed fluently and prolifically: a huge quantity of piano and chamber music, five concertos, a few little operas and a dozen symphonies for strings preceded his official Symphony No. 1 of 1824.

Then came the works that demonstrated not just precocious talent but real depth, among them the Octet for strings (1825) and, a year later, the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In his early twenties, beginning in 1829 with the first of his many visits to England, he spent three years travelling around Europe, meeting almost every cultural figure of note. His sensitivity to the spirit of the places he visited can be heard in such works as the ‘Italian’ and ‘Scottish’ Symphonies and the overture The Hebrides. From 1833 to 1835 he worked mainly in Düsseldorf, and then from 1835 until his early death he was Municipal Music Director and conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, where in 1843 he founded the influential Conservatory. He was outstanding as a pianist, organist, conductor and organiser, and tireless in promoting other composers’ music old and new – famously reviving Bach’s St Matthew Passion in 1829 and giving the posthumous first performance of Schubert’s Ninth Symphony in 1839.

Although he composed prolifically up to the end of his life in almost all forms (he never found the right opera libretto), he was rarely satisfied with his own facility, often keeping aside his major scores for a long period before presenting them to the public: the Violin Concerto (completed 1844) was six years in the making and the oratorio Elijah (completed 1846) nearly eight. Mendelssohn was very conscious of his part in an unbroken tradition of German music deriving from Bach and the great classics of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, and in each of his major works searched for means of infusing this tradition with his own modern Romantic sensibility. If his reputation suffered from the heavier performing styles of the later 19th century, which tended to sentimentalise his music, and also from the current of anti-Semitism that led to his music being banned by the Nazis, a modern perspective can appreciate his freshness and directness of expression, as well as the perfect ear for colour and texture, that place him among the greatest composers of any age.

Profile © Andrew Huth Felix Mendelssohn Biography (Wikipedia) Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847 (aged 38)), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family. He was brought up without religion until the age of seven, when he was baptised as a Reformed Christian. Mendelssohn was recognised early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his talent. Mendelssohn enjoyed early success in Germany, where he also revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and in his travels throughout Europe. He was particularly well received in Britain as a composer, conductor and soloist, and his ten visits there – during which many of his major works were premiered – form an important part of his adult career.

His essentially conservative musical tastes, however, set him apart from many of his more adventurous musical contemporaries such as Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Hector Berlioz. The Leipzig Conservatoire (now the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig), which he founded, became a bastion of this anti-radical outlook. This entry is from Wikipedia , the user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors and is licensed under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License . If you find the biography content factually incorrect or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia . Find out more about our use of this data. Show more Francis Plante - Complete Published Recordings - 1. Mende... - YouTube Francis Plante - Complete Published Recordings - 1. Mende... Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Nov 14, 2013 Felix Mendelssohn - Francis Plante - Complete Published Recordings - 1.

Mendelssohn - Scherzo, Op. 16 No. 2, E Minor (performed by unknown) Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (German: [?ja?k?p ?lu?tv?ç ?fe?l?ks ?m?ndl?szo?n ba??t?ldi]; 3 February 1809 -- 4 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn,[n 1] was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish banker family, although initially he was raised without religion and was later baptised as a Reformed Christian. Mendelssohn was recognised early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his talent. Early success in Germany, where he also revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, was followed by travel throughout Europe.

Mendelssohn was particularly well received in Britain as a composer, conductor and soloist, and his ten visits there -- during which many of his major works were premiered -- form an important part of his adult career. His essentially conservative musical tastes, however, set him apart from many of his more adventurous musical contemporaries such as Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner and Hector Berlioz. The Leipzig Conservatoire (now the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig), which he founded, became a bastion of this anti-radical outlook. Mendelssohn wrote symphonies, concerti, oratorios, piano music and chamber music. His best-known works include his Overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the overture The Hebrides, his mature Violin Concerto, and his String Octet. His Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes and anti-Semitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his creative originality has now been recognised and re-evaluated. He is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic era.

Category Pieczonka's Tarantella - "Willem Hillier" - Professional Audio - Fazioli Piano - YouTube Pieczonka's Tarantella - "Willem Hillier" - Professional Audio - Fazioli Piano Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jul 8, 2015 Albert Emil Theodor Pieczonka (February 10, 1828 - April 12, 1912) was a composer, pianist and music instructor who resided in Germany, England, and the United States. His most famous work, the Tarantella in A Minor, remains a popular piano standard more than 100 years after his death. Albert Pieczonka was born in Königsberg on the Baltic coast of East Prussia. Today, this city, which was heavily damaged during the Second World War, is named Kaliningrad. It lies within the Kaliningrad Oblast, the westernmost exclave of Russia.

Pieczonka was the youngest of three children born to Gotthilf Immanuel (1801-1872) and Friederike Caroline Dorothea (Rehlander) Pieczonka (1803-1853). He briefly attended the University of Königsberg before enrolling in the Leipzig Conservatory in 1847. This institution, the oldest music university in Germany, was founded by composer Felix Mendelssohn in 1843. While at the conservatory, Pieczonka studied under famed pianist Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870). He may have also studied under Franz Liszt before undertaking a solo career. In 1855, Pieczonka married one of his students, Nancy "Nanny" Wohlgeboren (1836-1916). The couple had eight children, one of whom died as an infant. Two of the children, Ernst (1857-1877) and Fanny (1858-1886), were born in East Prussia.

Alice (1859-1908), Kathe (1860-1938), Emily (1861-1915), Helen (1864-1896), Hans (1866-1867), and Eva (1867-1908), were born in London, England. Son, Ernst, was partially paralyzed as the result of a fall during childhood and died in England about 1876. Pieczonka's daughters’ lives were also marked by tragedy and were cut short by illness and accident. He outlived all but two of his children. In 1858, or thereabout, the Pieczonka family emigrated from continental Europe to London, England. In England, Pieczonka performed concerts and gave music lessons to children of the wealthy. It was in England that he composed several of his most recognized pieces including Dancing Waves, Polish Chivalry, and the Tarantella in A Minor. In September 1880, Pieczonka emigrated to the United States.

He arrived in New York on The Queen, a three masted steamer of the British National Line. The family eventually settled on the upper east side of Manhattan at 169 East 95th Street. During the 1880s, Pieczonka, his wife, and his daughters performed together throughout the United States as the Kempa Ladies’ Orchestra. Pieczonka also gave solo concerts at venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York and the Great Auditorium at Ocean Grove, New Jersey. His performances consistently garnered favorable reviews from the press. He continued to write music and to give music lessons until shortly before his death. Pieczonka died of pneumonia in his Manhattan home on April 12, 1912. He was survived by his wife and two daughters. His widow, Nancy, died on November 18, 1916. Following Pieczonka's death, a blurb appeared in the monthly music magazine Etude: Albert Pieconka, the pianist-teacher-composer who died recently in his eighty fifth year, bore a remarkable facial resemblace to Beethoven.

He studied at the University of Konigsberg and also at Leipzig Conservatory, after which he made a series of concert tours in German. His success in London won him the friendship of such men as Liszt and Rubinstein. In America he was more particularly engaged in teaching and composing. His best known work is his Tarantella. Thanks to the Bennington, VT Center for the Arts! Thanks also to Matt Moon, who shot and edited the video. Thanks to the Summer Sonatina International Piano Camp for making this concert a reality! Category

Question: Which composer founded the institution now known as the University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig in 1843?
Answer: MENDELSSOHN